1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for applying mainly a thin rubber sheet, e.g., an inner liner or insulation, onto a tire making drum, which is included in a series of raw tire making processes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a rubber sheet is cut on a conveyor disposed close to a tire making drum and to a specified length corresponding to one circumference of the tire making drum and the cut rubber sheet is fed thereto by synchronization of the conveyor speed with the circumferential speed of the tire making drum and then applied to the drum. This method has been proposed for applying the rubber sheet, such as an inner liner, onto the tire making drum for making the raw tire.
Such method, however, is defective in that (1) a thin rubber sheet, especially such as an inner liner or insulation, has a strong tendency to shrink while being left as it is for a fixed time period after being cut in a specified length, whereby disparity in its dimension makes it difficult to complete the joint work with accuracy, (2) the cut edge of rubber sheet when cut on the conveyor to a specified length adheres to a knife receiving block or a knife-edge, resulting in an unreliable feed of rubber sheets, and (3) it is not always easy to strictly synchronize the circumferential speed of the tire making drum with the conveyor speed for feeding the rubber sheet cut to a specified length to the tire making drum on which the rubber sheet is to be applied (if improper in synchronization, shrinkages will be created in the rubber sheet when applied).